White Supremacists Smuggle Heroin in Envelope Glue: AG

Racist gangs traded heroin for favors.

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A man holds his envelopes as he waits in line to mail his family's income tax returns at a mobile post office near the Internal Revenue Service building in downtown Washington, April 15, 2010. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

A prison guard at the Susanville State Prison recently noticed something suspicious about an envelope sent to one of their inmates, and before long, investigators had cracked a prison heroin smuggling ring run by a gang of white supremacists.

State Attorney General Kamala Harris announced the bust. According to arrest documents, the drugs got into the jail in the glue strips of letters mailed to inmates. Each glue strip contained close to a gram of heroin, which is worth $500 inside prison.

Investigators suspect many more heroin-laden envelopes may have been shipped into the prison.

The scheme was being perpetrated by the New Order gang, based in Yuba. Investigators allege that the drugs were used to broker deals with other racist gangs. In all, ten gang members were arrested, and a variety of drug equipment and weapons were confiscated.

Among those arrested was George William Lancaster, whose 20-year criminal record includes false imprisonment, kidnapping, burglary, and car theft. He's regarded as the godfather of Yuba's white supremacy movement.

The arrests are the culmination of an investigation named "Operation Forseti," a reference to the Norse god of justice. The reference to fair-skinned cultures is probably small consolation to the arrested racists.